Claims
- 1. A computer system for controlling lights within an environment, each light being on a circuit, comprising:
a scene description data structure that specifies circuits within a scene and specifies target states for the circuits within a scene; a lighting gateway that retrieves and provides scene descriptions when requested and that receives requests to enable a scene and notifies a lighting controller to enable the target state for each circuit within the scene that is requested to be enabled; and a lighting component for each space from which lights can be controlled that requests and retrieves scene descriptions from the lighting gateway and that receives requests generated from a user control point device to enable a scene and forwards the request to the lighting gateway.
- 2. The computer system of claim 1 further including:
a lighting user interface component for each space that requests the lighting component for scene descriptions and that controls the user control point device to present a user interface for controlling the lights within the space.
- 3. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the lighting gateway notifies the lighting component when the lighting controller changes state.
- 4. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the scenes for a space are organized into a group and wherein a user can control scenes in multiple groups from a single control point device.
- 5. A method in a computer system for controlling lights through a lighting controller, each light being on a circuit, the circuits being organized into scenes, the method comprising:
displaying a visual representation of scenes within an space that can be controlled; receiving a selection of one of the scenes from a user; and in response to receiving the selection of a scene,
requesting the lighting controller to enable the selected scene; and when the lighting controller has been successfully requested, displaying a momentary feedback to the user indicating that the lighting controller has been successfully requested.
- 6. The method of claim 5 wherein the momentary feedback is highlighting of the visual representation of the selected scene.
- 7. The method of claim 5 wherein the momentary feedback is an audio feedback.
- 8. The method of claim 5 including:
when the lighting controller has not been successfully requested, suppressing the displaying of the momentary feedback.
- 9. The method of claim 5 wherein the scenes can be enabled as a result of user input from more than one user control point device.
- 10. The method of claim 5 wherein a scene controls less than all of the circuits within a space.
- 11. A method in a computer system for controlling environmental conditions within an environment from a user control point device, the environment being divided into spaces, the method comprising:
providing a specification of groups of environmental conditions, each group of environmental conditions associated with a space; associating a user control point device with a space; displaying at the user control point device an indication of options available for controlling the environmental conditions associated with space and displaying an indication that another group of environmental conditions is controllable from that user control point device; and receiving a request from a user to control the environmental conditions in the other group from the user control point device.
- 12. The method of claim 11 including after receiving the request from the user, displaying at the user control point device an indication of options available for controlling environmental conditions within the other space.
- 13. The method of claim 11 wherein the space and the other space are adjacent spaces within the environment.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is related to U.S. patent application No. 60/118,668, entitled “COMMON DISTRIBUTED OBJECT PLATFORM,” filed on Feb. 3, 1999; U.S. Patent Application No.______, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING SOFTWARE COMPONENTS,” filed on May 28, 1999 (Attorney Docket No. 30581.8002.1001); U.S. Patent Application No.______, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING CLIENTS,” filed on May 28, 1999 (Attorney Docket No. 30581.8003.1001); U.S. Patent Application No.______, “AUDIO VISUAL ARCHITECTURE,” filed on May 28, 1999 (Attorney Docket No. 30581.8004.1001); U.S. Patent Application No.______, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS,” filed on May 28, 1999 (Attorney Docket No. 30581.8005.1001); U.S. Patent Application No.______, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTING ART,” filed on May 28, 1999 (Attorney Docket No. 30581.8006.1001); U.S. Patent Application No.______, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR GENERATING A USER INTERFACE FOR DISTRIBUTED DEVICES,” filed on May 28, 1999 (Attorney Docket No. 30581.8008.1001); U.S. Patent Application No.______, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING SOFTWARE COMPONENTS,” filed on May 28, 1999 (Attorney Docket No. 30581.8009.1001); and U.S. Patent Application No.______, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROPERTY NOTIFICATION,” filed on May 28, 1999 (Attorney Docket No. 30581.8010.1001), the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60118668 |
Feb 1999 |
US |
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09322459 |
May 1999 |
US |
Child |
10223231 |
Aug 2002 |
US |